[Adonthell-devel] Re: Waste's Edge progress

[Kai Sterker]

On Thu, Apr 8, 2010 at 12:37 AM, Kai Sterker <address@hidden> wrote:

> It's done, but (much) more work is left. I'm pretty happy with how the
> graphics have turned out. Part of it is still a bit experimental (i.e.
> the shadows cast by vertical walls), so not everything is matching up
> 100% perfectly.

Converted most of the barn gfx this weekend. I also have practically
all the wall pieces needed for Redwyne Inn 2nd floor and the guard
house. What's missing are the roof tiles. Creating those will be a bit
more work, and I am not exactly sure how to cut them properly. Make
them into squares (which will make it easier to create seamless tiles,
but gfx will not match the model) or into rhombs (harder to make
seamless, but gfx will match model). I do not know if it matters much
as long as we're not trying to climb onto the roof. But if we do, I'm
certain there'll be rendering issues with the simpler approach.


All in all, work on the gfx/map goes pretty slow. Part of it comes
from me being too pedantic, doing lots of post-processing to Grumbels
upscaled graphics. The result starts looking amazing, though! :-). The
other part comes from trying to replicate the map as close as possible
to the original, which proves difficult at times. In v0.3, interiors
did not always match exteriors (even though we tried hard), so I need
to rearrange rooms, move doors or stairs, etc. Something that requires
quite more thoughts and trying different variations than one would
expect.


Anyway, more and more of the map is coming together now. Missing bits are:

* Barn and Inn roof
* Doors and the gate
* Surrounding wall
* Decoration/furniture

Almost all of those are already available in the new resolution and
only need a bit of post-processing.

* Character sprites

I see those as the biggest roadblock in finishing the WE conversion to
v0.4. Not sure what to do about that, though. I'm good enough to touch
up and cut existing gfx so they fit the engine, but I'm certainly not
the right person to upscale and animate all the characters. Grumbel
has already provided a first frame for the Dun Barethsol characters,
which includes most of the WE ones too:

http://adonthell.berlios.de/doc/images/8/83/Dun-Barethsol-cast.png

Included are Alek, Frostbloom, Talan, Jelom, Orloth, Lucia and Oliver.
Missing are Bjarn, Erek, Fellnir, Silverhair, Janesta, Sarin, Tristan
and the Player.

Need to find somebody to continue the work, but at least we could use
the existing gfx as placeholders until that happens.

Kai